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Saturday, 10 December 2011

A Cold Day's Walk

Winter is beginning to creep into London. It only got up to about 5 C (~42 F) today, and there's a chance we could have our first freeze tonight. Being fairly close to the river, I except we're among the last in England to have frost. My coworkers (nearly all of whom live outside of London) have told me that they have been scraping their car windshields on some mornings. More often, though, they tell me of how Greater London was more or less buried under what couldn't have been less than 100 feet of snow by this time last year.

On a cold December day, there's nothing much better to do than sit inside and gaze at the Christmas tree. Still, I thought it would be nice to get out a bit, so Charlotte and I went walking for a couple of hours.

Everything is getting a bit festive here as the big day nears. All of the pubs have decorations up and kettles of mulled wine and cider on the bar. Some, apparently, even have carolling.

Holy Trinity had a "green & ethical" Christmas celebration, the spirit of which I applaud. The reality of it, though, was a Christmas tree farm crossed with a bake sale, which pales in comparison with their summertime festival offering.

Another pub hosted a local school's steel drum band/bake sale in its garden. I was surprised by the steel drums, I admit. More surprised to hear them being played by kids. They were good, though, and it just goes to show that you can find anything in a big enough city. I love London.

To the main event: Charlotte's walk in the park. Here's the gorgeous girl making tracks.

She didn't get a lot of walking in, mostly due to the cold and the fact that the grass has been let to grow. The wheels of the walker don't do well in deep lawn.

Nonetheless, she seemed happy to be outside, even if the time was short

Long enough, though, it seems, to bring on a satisfying nap on the way home.